


Northern Exposure

by Tossukka



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-07
Updated: 2012-12-07
Packaged: 2017-11-20 14:47:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/586536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tossukka/pseuds/Tossukka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin’s foreign exchange was supposed to be an adventure, but it turned into a teenage drama during the first day and by the holidays already resembled an overly romantic Christmas movie. Long cold winter nights, huge piles of snow and learning noun cases that made his head hurt had all been part of the plan; falling for his annoying flat mate, huskies, glass igloos and Northern Lights had not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Northern Exposure

**Author's Note:**

> I… don’t really have any excuse for this. Um. Writing this I realised that Arthur would be one of those guys who pretend to yawn and stretch and use the movement to put their arm around the person they like. He’s not the most subtle guy in the world, but he’s even going one step further than that in this story. I also noticed that he’s really ~~un~~ lucky that Merlin can’t take a hint. Also, this was not supposed to be a travel advert, but I think it kind of is now. Oops.
> 
> I’ll give you gingerbread and glogg if you remember the show I stole the title from.
> 
> The pictures are all mine except the airport and Northern Lights ones, and even those ones are edited by me.
> 
>  **Warnings:** Shameless promotion of a country (but some bashing too), irresponsible use of alcohol, excessive fluff (really, in this case it needs its own warning, I won’t be paying your dental bill)

## Northern Exposure

Merlin smacked Arthur on the arm.

“Ow. What was that for?” Arthur asked, rubbing the spot.

“It was for being an obnoxious prat, and for starting the story of how we met from _the first time we shagged_ ,” Merlin hissed in a low voice, but he could hear the snickers of the others. He had shown pictures from his exchange year already and told some of the latest stories, stories of the Finnish summer and midnight sun, and a summer cottage on the shores of a lake, and the first of May celebrations. Arthur had been filling in the points where Merlin’s memory lapsed, or as Arthur said it, “when Merlin was hammered enough not to remember his own name.” After many such stories, and a lot of bickering about the details, Morgana’s best friend Gwen had finally asked the question that interested them all,

“So, how did you two meet then? Love at first sight?”

Merlin had let out an ugly laugh; Arthur had actually seemed a bit hurt by it and had begun to talk about “the most important developments” of their relationship.

Thus the smacking had happened.

“I think it was an excellent starting point.”

“That’s because you have no manners and no storytelling skills whatsoever.”

Arthur already had an arm thrown possessively around Merlin’s shoulders on the backrest of the sofa they were occupying, so it was easy for him to lean closer to whisper in Merlin’s ear, 

“I have other skills to make up for it though.”

Merlin tried to pout, but he could feel his cheeks warming.

“Could you two stop with the flirting and finally tell the story? Although I don’t really mind if you want to share the intimate details of Merlin’s body with the rest of the crew,” Morgana said, smirking knowingly. The rest of their friends were sitting scattered around the room, watching the couple in amusement. Gwaine had brought enough beer for the whole group, because he was Gwaine and had said it was to celebrate “having Merlin back from that rubbish country where they couldn’t even make real beer.” Almost everyone had a bottle or a glass in hand. Apparently, Arthur and Merlin’s respective circles of friends had already mingled together splendidly. Arthur noticed Merlin’s friend Lance talking to Gwen in the corner, making her giggle.

Arthur squeezed Merlin just a bit closer.

“You keep your hands off of Merlin,” Arthur snarled at Morgana, and Merlin touched his knee reassuringly.

“Okay, okay,” Arthur said. “It was a cold and snowy day when we…”

“Arthur, stop right there. Are you starting from the holidays?” Merlin asked, a blush back on his cheeks. Arthur nodded. Merlin shook his head.

“Since Arthur apparently can’t do this right, I’m going to begin _from the beginning_ ,” he shot a glare at Arthur. “It all started in September when I arrived at Helsinki airport…”

\---

[](http://tinypic.com?ref=xbhf8l)

_Well, fuck me. I can’t be lost already,_ Merlin thought with a sigh. He had _told_ his mother over and over again that he would be fine in the exchange program; that he could survive nine or ten months in another country and come back home alive. It was the first day of his adventure, he was in the middle of an airport in a foreign country, and he was utterly lost.

Luckily, he had chosen a Nordic country for his expedition. People received a decent education here, and most of them probably knew English.

“Excuse me!” he said to the closest person who looked like she knew where she was going, and asked for instructions on how to get to his meeting point. He was supposed to meet some university official there, and they would take him on a tour of the university buildings and after that drop him off at his new flat. He would also meet his new roommates there; Merlin really hoped his fellow students were as non-homophobic as all the guide books had assured, because it would be really rubbish to be either bullied, cockblocked, or both for the entire duration of the program..

The woman gave him instructions in slightly accented but fluent English, and Merlin thanked her before turning around and walking straight into someone.

“Watch where you’re going, will you,” the man said, and Merlin recognised him as the same guy he had seen at Heathrow. The man had been on the same plane with him. 

\---

“Wait,” Arthur interrupted Merlin’s story right then.

“What? Did I tell something wrong?”

“No. You just forgot a detail,” Arthur said smugly and grinned at Merlin. “You wanted to shag me ever since Heathrow. Just get it out of the way and admit it to the room right now.”

Merlin flushed and punched Arthur softly.

“No, I didn’t,” he said. “I... might have thought you were a bit hot, but that was before I knew you were a complete twat. And I’m pretty sure you said you wanted to... What was it? Bite my neck and lick my cheekbones even back then?”

It was Arthur’s turn to blush horribly.

“I’m not the one telling the story.”

“No, you’re not, and you’d better remember it. Now shut up and let me continue.”

\---

“It was an accident, mate. No need to get your knickers in a twist about it,” Merlin told him.

He huffed.

“I’m not your _mate_. Now if you’re done wasting my time, I have somewhere to be,” the guy said, and walked away.

“What an arse. The feeling is mutual, you massive pillock,” Merlin muttered, and began to walk towards his meeting place.

\---

Arthur twisted uncomfortably next to Merlin, and without stopping in his story, Merlin took his hand and brought it to his lap.

\---

There was a nice looking, sandy-haired woman waiting for him with a sign that had “University of Helsinki” written on it. Merlin marched right to her.

“Hi,” the woman greeted him. “Arthur Pendragon? Or...”

The woman was about to check her papers, but Merlin offered his hand to her.

“Merlin Emrys.”

The woman told Merlin her name, but there was no way in hell Merlin could have pronounced it right. It might’ve been Laura, but Merlin couldn’t even begin to guess the spelling of her last name.

“Nice to meet you. We are having another exchange student coming along. He should have been on the same flight with you, so I don’t expect it to take long. How are you finding Finland so far, Merlin?”

“Well, I really haven’t had the time to do much else than get lost in the airport, but I think I’m going to like it here,” Merlin answered diplomatically, because everybody usually wanted to hear that about their own country. Merlin didn’t want to appear rude, because this was the starting point of his adventure and he intended to enjoy it.

Right then, possibly-Laura spotted someone.

“Ah, if I’m not much mistaken, that is our other exchange student. Arthur, is it?”

“Arthur Pendragon. Very pleased to meet you. Sorry I’m a bit late, I had to pick up some coffee to cheer up.”

Then Arthur spotted Merlin, who just knew it was all going to hell, because Arthur was the same blond prat he had walked into earlier, now with a mug from Starbucks in his hand.

They both groaned in unison and possibly-Laura gave them a strange look. She looked between them, probably trying to decide if they would give her additional trouble with their mutual dislike. Finally, she just shrugged it off before producing a smile on her face again, and led them out of the building towards the parking area.

It was cool but sunny outside. The sky was pale blue and leaves in the trees were turning yellow and red. From the plane Merlin had noticed the amount of forests and lakes—the country had seemed to be nothing but trees—and he really hoped he would get a chance to visit a summer cottage or something while here. He loved nature, and he wanted to take in everything from his new environment. He was happy he had brought a scarf, and he put it around his neck outside the building. Arthur shot him a strange look, but Merlin didn’t really care what he thought of his fashion sense, because the scarf made him feel warmer at once.

When they got to the car, Arthur claimed the front seat before Merlin could oppose. Merlin grumped as he climbed into the backseat, but in truth it didn’t really matter to him where he had to sit.

Of course, the traffic was also on the wrong side of the road, which would take some time to get used to. Merlin drank in the landscape; he still couldn’t quite believe that his life had brought him here. This strange country, where he couldn’t understand a word of the native language and where the traffic, the houses, and the people looked similar to those in any European city, but at the same time were something completely new. For a moment, Merlin had to blink back tears when the rush of feelings overwhelmed him. 

They got out of the traffic chaos of the airport area and were driving apparently towards what Merlin assumed was the city centre, when possibly-Laura spoke,

“So what are you both studying? I’ll assume you have the meetings with your respective tutors here sometime this week?”

“Environmental science,” Merlin answered, before Arthur could. “I’ll have some of my lectures in the city centre and some in Vii... Viik...”

Merlin’s tongue had difficulties wrapping around the foreign word. He had read his information book about a thousand times through, but it was different to say the words out loud, especially to someone who actually spoke the language.

“Viikki,” possibly-Laura said, and smiled at Merlin. “No worries. You’ll get used to the names in no time. And you can always ask people to repeat them.”

Arthur snorted.

“What?” Merlin asked, folding his arms and glaring at Arthur, who was looking over his shoulder smugly.

“Just... figures,” Arthur said, and Merlin furrowed his brows. “That you can’t pronounce Finnish and would be one of those _save the world_ types.”

“Okay, Mr I-Speak-Fluent-Finnish, what do you study then?” Merlin asked, annoyed because he was being laughed at.

“Economics.”

It was Merlin’s turn to snort.

“Figures too. Let me guess: rich and privileged and intending to stay that way?”

\---

Arthur flinched on the sofa beside Merlin, and Merlin pressed a kiss to his knuckles. They had apologised for those first days already, but remembering the words that were meant to hurt the other was still a bit painful. Merlin snuggled closer to Arthur and continued.

\---

[](http://tinypic.com?ref=jv4oqa)

The university buildings were scattered around the city centre and they mostly taught the human and social sciences on that area. The natural sciences were on two other campuses, and the rest of them were basically all over Helsinki, and Merlin was sure he’d get lost and end up in a wrong part of the city more than once before learning his way around. Why, oh why, had he ever thought that this was a good idea?

“Are you both going to study Finnish this year?” possibly-Laura asked.

Merlin and Arthur both nodded.

“You should have no problems. You have your lecture schedules, yes?”

They nodded again.

“All university web pages are also in English, as are most of the other official things. All the teachers and university staff know English too, so if you don’t know something, you can always ask. But learning Finnish enough to understand signs and the language environment generally might come handy.”

All throughout the morning and afternoon they went through all the possible problems they might face living in Finland and ways of finding answers to any of their questions. They received usernames for the university network and learned to connect their laptops to that while on campus. Possibly-Laura gave them both a list of useful websites, which included one for finding a public transport route to almost anywhere in the Helsinki metropolitan area, and maps. She also taught them how to find information on the university website and the intranet for the students. By the end of the afternoon Merlin had a head full of information and aching eyes.

The studying hadn’t even begun yet, and he was already tired. He missed his mum and Lancelot and Will back home, and wondered if he was even going to make any new friends here. Although it was something he should probably ask about now when he had a chance.

“Can I ask something?” Merlin spoke up. “Is there an LGBT society for the students?”

Possibly-Laura only blinked once at the question and began to look for information. She found out that there indeed was a society, but she also told him about the general LGBT activity in the area. According to the websites, there was quite a lot of it. Merlin wrote the addresses down just in case, and then looked at Arthur who had gone oddly quiet. He was pale and looking at Merlin with a strange expression. Let him judge all he liked, but Merlin wanted to enjoy his stay, and some snogging and possibly shagging would be a good addition to it.

“What?” he asked finally when Arthur still hadn’t taken his eyes away. He seemed to come back to his senses then.

“Oh! Nothing. Could you give me those addresses too?” Arthur asked, and wrote them down on his phone.

Well. 

That was a bit unexpected. 

Maybe Merlin’s gaydar was malfunctioning, or maybe he should just once and for all stop judging book by their covers, because he’d had no idea that Arthur might be that way inclined. He just didn’t fit the stereotype, which was a stupid way of thinking, because Merlin wasn’t actually a feminine gay either. 

“Okay, I think that is enough for today. I’m going to drop you to your flat now,” Laura said.

Arthur made a distressed sound.

“You mean flats?” he asked, and Merlin’s brain caught up.

“As it happens, you both went a bit of an untraditional route with the hunting for student housing. If you had applied during early summer through HOAS like most people do—you know, the foundation for student housing in the region—you would probably be nowhere near each other, but now...”

Merlin was already logging into his email with his laptop and looking for his future address. Arthur was doing the same with his mobile.

They said the address aloud at the same time, looked at each other, and groaned. Arthur buried his face in his hands and Merlin wondered what had caused that reaction in him. Merlin hadn’t been an arse to his knowledge, and it couldn’t be the gay thing either, so Arthur shouldn’t have had reason to complain about the arrangement. But maybe it was just the mutual dislike in general, and having to spend more time with each other if they were indeed staying in the same place.

Merlin made a mental note to start looking for other possible accommodations first thing tomorrow.

\---

“Wait, wait, wait,” Morgana interrupted. “You mean the flatmate you were drooling over right from the beginning was _Merlin_? And you knew he was gay? My God, Arthur. You really know how to make your life hard.”

All eyes in the room turned to Arthur. Arthur blushed.

“I wasn’t _drooling_ , Morgana. He just...”

Merlin looked at Arthur and raised his eyebrows.

“That is brand new information for me,” Merlin said.

“You should’ve heard him. During the first week of your stay in Helsinki, Arthur wasn’t talking about anything else on Skype. _My flatmate is annoying; my flatmate wears stupid scarves,_ well silly me, that one should’ve been a giveaway; _my flatmate has a gorgeous backside and gorgeous cheekbones and stupid blue eyes and I can’t stop thinking about kissing his neck._ It was driving me completely mad!”

“Oh, really?” Merlin smirked, still looking at Arthur.

“Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?” Arthur snapped at Morgana.

“Okay, okay. Let’s get on with it, but we’ll talk about this later, Arthur,” Merlin said and leaned close to whisper,  
“In private.”

Arthur swallowed.

\---

Their shared flat was owned by a lovely lady who lived across the corridor. She spoke in slightly accented English like almost all the people they had met so far, but they understood her well enough. She rented the flat especially for foreign students and exchange students, which meant she had a story or two of her own to tell about the previous inhabitants. She told them the rules and that they could call or come and visit her any time if they had anything to ask, or if they just wanted to talk for a while.

It was a two-bedroom flat with a small kitchen and even a living room. The flat was already furnished and the only complaint Merlin had about the arrangement was his annoying roommate. He would probably get used to being around Arthur in no time though, and it was nice to have someone from back home so close, even if he was a complete prat.

\---

“Come on, get to the point already,” Gwaine interrupted, not even slurring despite the amount of alcohol he had consumed. “I’ve heard so many versions of how you two became friends. I want the real story.”

Merlin rolled his eyes.

\---

It wasn’t actually a new thing to get drunk in Finland. The locals liked partying as much as any students, and despite his doubts, Merlin had enough invitations to fill most of his evenings if he so wanted. This particular Wednesday he had decided to spend at the flat though. Firstly it was blessedly empty for once, because Arthur was out somewhere, and secondly Merlin had a few assignments to finish. He spent the night learning new Finnish words, cursing the stupid grammar (seriously, how could they survive without articles and prepositions? Who could ever remember all these ridiculously long words? And all of these noun cases were driving him mad!), and writing a lecture diary for his Environmental Policy course.

Merlin had also found out that Finnish people luckily didn’t dub movies, unless they were for children, and having subtitles helped Merlin learn even more Finnish words and spelling. He was preparing to go to bed when he heard a crash in the hallway. 

Merlin sighed. It sounded like Arthur had returned to the flat gloriously drunk and broken something that might’ve been either the ugly vase in the hall, or a bone in Arthur’s arm. Possibly both.

Now he had to go and see if Arthur had hurt himself. The crash had been a loud one, and Merlin didn’t actually want to find Arthur choked on his own vomit in the morning when he was leaving for uni.

Arthur was indeed in the hallway, laying flat on his stomach on the floor and the front door still open. There wasn’t any vomit, thank God, and both Arthur’s arms and the ugly vase seemed to be okay.

Merlin went to close the door and then kneeled next to Arthur to see if he wanted any help.

“Are you all right?” he asked when Arthur blinked up at him.

“’M fine,” Arthur mumbled and tried to push himself up. “I fell.”

Merlin sighed again.

“Okay then, let’s get you up and into bed,” he said, and tried to get Arthur to put an arm over his shoulder. Arthur’s face brightened.

“You joining me?”

“Arthur, I will take you to the bathroom to brush your teeth and drink a pint of water, and then you’re going to your bed and I will go to mine. Then we will wake up in the morning, you probably won’t have any recollection of tonight, and I’ll pretend this never happened, okay?”

Arthur got back on his feet with Merlin’s help and threw his coat and shoes somewhere, apparently not caring where they landed.

“Why don’t you like me?” Arthur murmured. “Everyone else does. There was a guy who wanted to shag me tonight. A Finnish guy. He liked me. Why don’t you?”

Arthur was leaning against Merlin, and his breath reeked of vodka and cranberry juice. If Merlin had been vengeful he would’ve teased Arthur about drinking girly drinks, but right now pointing out the particular drinks Arthur had used to get himself in this condition seemed to be a bit beside the point. He made a mental note to save the teasing until the morning.

“I like you just fine,” Merlin told him. Sure, he thought Arthur was a twat, and rude, and he had complained more than his fair share about his flatmate to anyone who listened, but Merlin didn’t really even know the guy. “I like you enough to help you, don’t I?”

“You do? I like you, Merlin. I want you to like me too.”

“Okay then,” Merlin said, and opened the door to the bathroom. Merlin handed him a toothbrush and a glass. Obediently, Arthur began to brush his teeth.

“Do you need to...?” Merlin trailed off. “I’m not going to help you with that, just so you know.”

“I’d better,” Arthur said, and spat the toothpaste into the sink. He took gulps of water and already seemed to be more sober. While Arthur did whatever else he needed to do in the bathroom, Merlin waited outside the door. He had asked Arthur not to lock it just in case he fell down and cracked his head, and Arthur had been too distracted to argue the point. When he was done Merlin helped him into his room.

“Can you undress yourself, or do you need help with that too?” Merlin teased. Undressing gorgeous blokes wouldn’t have been a hardship for Merlin, but maybe Arthur didn’t want to be ogled like that while drunk. Especially not by Merlin.

“I can do it,” Arthur insisted as he threw his shirt on the chair. The undershirt went on top of that, and Merlin gulped. Arthur began to open his trousers.

“Okay, well,” Merlin said, trying to not be too obvious with his staring. “You seem to be managing just fine. I think I’ll...”

“Merlin,” Arthur mumbled. “I want you to like me. Why don’t you?”

“I already told I like you fine. Now go to bed and get some sleep,” Merlin said, and pushed Arthur towards the bed. “We’ll talk about it in the morning when you’re not completely out of your mind drunk.”

“’K,” Arthur said, and climbed under his blankets. “Night.”

“Goodnight, Arthur,” Merlin said, clicking the lights off on his way out.

The next morning they didn’t talk about it, except when Merlin mentioned the girly drinks and made Arthur groan, but he had also gone to the grocery store to buy orange juice early in the morning, and had had two pills and a big glass of water ready for Arthur when he woke up. Arthur had swallowed the pills and drank almost a full carton of juice before saying a word to Merlin. He seemed uncharacteristically sheepish, but when they left for university that morning, they went together. After that, having Arthur hang around him in Finnish lectures and during lunch time seemed perfectly normal for Merlin, and maybe, just possibly, Arthur was okay after all.

\---

“Awww,” Gwen said. “That is the cutest story I’ve ever heard.”

“Only you would think it’s cute to have someone to almost drown in their own barf, Gwen,” Morgana pointed out. “But it certainly explains some of the Skype calls I got from Arthur around that time.”

“Anyway!” Arthur interrupted, looking uncomfortable. “Could we move on?”

Merlin just smirked.

“Move on to the time we went to a gay bar together?”

“Now _this_ I need to hear!” Elena announced, to general shouts of agreement.

“It was all Merlin’s fault,” Arthur said, pouting.

\---

[](http://tinypic.com?ref=2dr9vut)

To be perfectly honest, joining the group from the uni LGBT society when they were planning a night out had been Arthur’s idea, so it hadn’t been completely Merlin’s fault. The rest of the night probably was, though, and could mostly be blamed on Merlin’s horrible taste in men.

Merlin had been dancing with a guy who was good-looking enough and had his hands wrapped around Merlin’s hips in no time. It was good to have a distraction and since Merlin had already drunk quite a lot before they got to the club, his judgement was not at its sharpest. Grinding his arse against a stranger on a packed dance floor in a truly filthy fashion had seemed like a bloody brilliant idea.

Until Arthur came in front of him and pulled Merlin against himself, away from the stranger.

“What are you doing?” Merlin hissed when Arthur in turn put his arm around Merlin and began to dance against him. “Arthur, what the hell?”

“The real question here is what the hell are _you_ doing? You know he’s nothing but bad news,” Arthur murmured in Merlin’s ear.

“What’s it to you? I can make my own decisions just fine.”

“Apparently you can’t. The others told me to come and save you from him. Some of them have been in your place and that guy is not a gentleman. He... well, I can tell some stories about him tomorrow.”

“So you just wanted to be my knight in shining armour?” Merlin asked. He knew Arthur was probably right, but he felt angry about being taken away from the possibility of dancing the night away with a handsome bloke. “Okay then. Since you scared away my dancing partner, I’ll assume you’re going to dance with me for the rest of the night?”

Arthur stepped back and stared at him.

“No, really. You have to make up for it,” Merlin said and pulled Arthur back by his arm. Then he turned his back on Arthur and wrapped the arm around his middle. Arthur was close now, and Merlin could hear him make a distressed sound. “Come on.”

Soon Arthur was moving to the music with Merlin. It was not the same kind of dry humping Merlin had done with the other guy, but more slow and sensual. Arthur didn’t push his hips against Merlin’s arse at all, and Merlin tried to tell himself that he wasn’t even slightly disappointed about it. He was not. This was _Arthur_ , for God’s sake, and doing that with your flatmate who you would have to see every day for the next seven months or so was decidedly not a good idea. Nevertheless, Merlin was going to take everything he could out of this and turned around so he was facing Arthur again.

“That guy really was a complete twat, Merlin,” Arthur said.

“I know,” he answered, putting his arms around Arthur’s neck. “Luckily I found a good replacement.”

Arthur looked a bit hurt.

“Replacement, am I?”

“Didn’t mean it like that. You’re just fine. Not going to shag you, though. It could get awkward,” Merlin said, but despite his words he leaned closer to Arthur. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Arthur said, and tugged Merlin just a little bit closer. 

They didn’t dance with other people that night.

\---

“So,” Gwaine said. “I take it you didn’t do anything? That’s boring. A gay bar story should have a lot more action.”

Merlin rolled his eyes.

“The way we danced was quite sexy if I do say so myself,” he said, winking at Gwaine. “Anything but boring.”

“I think I liked Arthur’s way of telling this story better than yours,” Gwaine added with a yawn.

“Well, boohoo. You’re stuck with me now, so shut it before I come and shut your mouth for you,” Merlin said.

“No, you won’t,” Arthur said, tightening his grip around Merlin’s shoulders.

Merlin just grinned, raising his eyebrow at Arthur before going back to his story.

\---

Of course Merlin had known that the weather up north would be different than in London. The darkness that seemed to creep in earlier every day should’ve been a clue that winter was on its way, but somehow he’d been surprised by the first snow. It had been November, and it had been cold enough for his breath to come out foggy some mornings. It was not a completely new experience for him, but he had felt a bit silly when he arrived at university wrapped in layers of clothing when most people were still wearing their autumn coats.

“Wait till the proper winter comes, mate,” a Finnish student had commented on his outfit. “Better save that stuff until it’s -30 outside.”

Arthur had not said anything about the cold or the dark, but he had been watching the sky and reading the weather forecasts more frequently than not. Merlin wasn’t sure what that was about, but he knew Arthur would tell him at some point if he wanted him to know.

Then one night Arthur’s waiting was over.

“Merlin,” a voice dragged Merlin out of sleep in the middle of the night. “Merlin, wake up.”

When Merlin opened his eyes Arthur was looming next to his bed, looking a bit embarrassed. Arthur’s hair was sticking up in every direction and he was only wearing a pair of pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt.

“Arthur? What’s happened? Is something wrong?” Merlin muttered, still half-asleep.

“No, but come and look.”

Merlin threw the blankets off and came to stand at the window next to Arthur. The streetlamps and city lights reflected from the little wisps of white swirling in the wind and made everything outside look orange. There was a thin white cover on the windowsill already.

“It’s snowing,” Arthur whispered.

\---

Merlin hesitated. He didn’t want to tell too much of that discussion, because it had been a deeply personal one. Arthur had told him about his mother, how the first snow of winter had fallen on the day he was born and his mother had died, and how his father had always been sad during the first snow when he had been a child. Sharing that story wasn’t actually Merlin’s business, and he had a feeling that Arthur didn’t want everyone to know about it. Arthur put his hand on Merlin’s knee.

It had been a very important night for both of them. Somehow until that point Merlin had thought that he could be just good friends with Arthur, but when he saw Arthur holding back tears as he watched the snow falling, it became clear that it was more for Merlin. It was not only deep friendship or plain attraction; Merlin knew after seeing Arthur at his most vulnerable that he was on his way to falling for the prat, and that he didn’t actually have any objections to that. On the other hand, if he wasn’t careful it could soon turn ugly and awkward, because lusting after your flatmate wasn’t going to be easy even in the best case, and if he went and fell in love with Arthur...

Now though, when he sat beside Arthur on the sofa and knew the other felt the same, that night was a happy memory, not a bittersweet one anymore.

“Well, the snow was beautiful, but you wouldn’t believe the chaos it caused the next day in traffic. It was a complete nightmare,” Merlin said, subtly changing the subject. “Nothing gets cancelled just because you get a bit of snow, but it takes twice as much time to get anywhere.”

“Yeah, Merlin held my hand like a girl all the way to the university. I think I should be thankful that he wasn’t screaming in my ear whenever the wheels of the bus slid on the snow,” Arthur stated, and Merlin glared at him.

“On the other hand, you were clearly already smitten with me. It was only a few days later that you asked me to spend _the Christmas_ with you,” Merlin shot back.

People around the room snickered.

“It didn’t go like that!” Arthur insisted.

“Whatever you say, dear, whatever you say,” Merlin said. “Now shut up and let me continue.”

\---

[](http://tinypic.com?ref=2rc0f34)

“Are you going to fly home for Christmas?” Arthur asked casually while they were doing their Finnish homework in the living room and eating pizza.

“I was going to stay here, actually,” Merlin said. “Why?”

“No reason. I just asked around and it seems that most people I know are spending Christmas with their families, and most places are closed for the holidays. I’m going to be here as well, so do you want to do something together?”

“Sure. Sounds like fun,” Merlin said, but his heart was beating just a bit faster. Arthur wanted to spend the holidays with him. Even when Arthur probably had other choices, Arthur wanted to spend more time with _him_.

“I had an idea,” Arthur said, looking a bit embarrassed. “You don’t have to say yes, of course, it’s just something I thought might be fun.”

“Arthur,” Merlin interrupted before Arthur could get all self-conscious about this idea of his. “Just tell me.”

“Here,” Arthur said, and gave Merlin a leaflet. “What do you think?”

Merlin took a look at the advert. There were pictures of snow and darkness and Northern Lights in the sky. There were also little glass igloos, and the text proclaimed that they were actually hotel rooms where a visitor could experience sleeping under the stars and not freeze to death during the night.

“It looks... expensive,” Merlin said, because it really did look like something that was ridiculously outside his price range.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll pay. I just want to visit Lapland and see the Northern Lights and I... I kind of already reserved a room for us? Or rooms, because I thought we could take one of those glass igloos for a night or two and spend the rest in a cabin. I can still cancel it if you don’t want to go, but if you want to join me...”

Merlin raised his eyebrows.

“Forget it,” Arthur muttered. “You clearly don’t want to.”

“No! Wait,” Merlin said, catching Arthur’s sleeve before he could leave and hide in his room to mope. “I’d love to go, but I really can’t let you pay for it. It’s too much.”

“You’ll have to pay for your own train journey,” Arthur said. “We could rent a car, but maybe it’s less stressful if we just go by train. With the snow and traffic on the right side and everything. Or we could fly if you prefer that? So what do you say? I can afford the hotel, Merlin. It’s no bother. You can think of it as your Christmas gift. Please?”

“Well...” Merlin hesitated, because it really looked inviting. “Okay then. I’ll go with you. But I think we have to reserve seats in the train pretty soon. When do you want to go?”

Arthur’s smile lit up the whole room.

“I have the rooms reserved from December 22nd till the 27th. I thought we’d like to spend the New Year back in Helsinki?”

“Okay then. We’d better take a train for the night between the 21st and 22nd then, right?”

Merlin began to look for a suitable train for them and tried to ignore the way Arthur was still watching him. The train journey on its own was going to be expensive, but it wasn’t anything Merlin couldn’t afford. He had prepared for extra expenses in case of travelling and had some money put aside for these kinds of things, but he was still happy Arthur was going to pay for the hotel room.

Somehow Merlin would pay him back for that. He still had no idea how, but he was too proud to just let Arthur pay for everything and not give him something in return.

\---

“I’ll bet you’ve already paid him back,” Morgana pointed out, and Arthur made a strangled sound.

“ _Morgana._ You’re my sister!”

“Just stating the obvious, Arthur. Or do you really think Merlin still owes you for those nights?”

“Of course not! Merlin never owed me anything!” Arthur said, but there was a blush on his cheeks.

“But he paid you back anyway?” Gwaine asked, waggling his eyebrows at Arthur.

“Seriously,” Merlin interrupted. “Do you all think that it’s only Arthur who _received_ something from the time we spent together? I can assure you the hotel wasn’t _my_ only Christmas gift.”

There were whistles around the room, and Merlin smirked at Arthur, who was staring at him incredulously.

“I can’t believe you just said that,” Arthur murmured.

“It’s the truth. As you said, you do have some talents in that department,” Merlin said. He had brought Arthur’s hand to his knee again. “Do you people really want to hear about all the nights we spent just sitting at home and studying for exams, or do you want to move on?” 

“Move on, of course,” Morgana said. “If I’ve understood correctly we’re getting to the good parts right about now.”

Arthur coughed softly.

“Arthur, you wanted to share the intimate details earlier? Should I still do that?” Merlin asked, turning to look at his boyfriend.

“I think... a general version is good enough. No need to over share,” Arthur answered, giving Merlin a pointed look.

There were several _come on_ ’s from around the room, but Merlin simply ignored them.

\---

[](http://tinypic.com?ref=20h7pxv)

They had decided to go to Lapland by train and travel forwards from the train station by bus, but fly back home. They would travel overnight, and Merlin had prepared for no less than an arctic expedition. He had jumpers and hoodies and long underwear packed in his bag, and he was sure he would be forgetting something.

“You have your camera, right? And passport? And the train tickets and timetable for the bus? Did you print out our flight tickets today at uni?”

“Yes, Merlin,” Arthur answered without raising his head from the essay he would have to send his teacher through email before leaving.

“And you have enough warm clothes? We’re crossing the Arctic Circle. I’ve never been that up north before. You’re sure we won’t freeze to death, are you?”

“For God’s sake, Merlin. You do realise that people actually live there? The mobile phones will work and they have internet connection and everything. Just because it’s in the north doesn’t mean that it’s the Middle Ages suddenly. If we forget something we can buy it there. _We will be fine._ ”

“Okay,” Merlin said, and went through his bag one more time.

Arthur wrote a full paragraph before Merlin spoke again.

“Oh fuck. I need to buy some petroleum jelly! And um,” Merlin hesitated, “some other stuff. I’ll be back soon.”

Arthur just sighed and waved his hand at Merlin.

\---

“Ooh,” Arthur said.

“What?” Merlin asked.

“That’s when you bought it. Well, obviously Vaseline was not going to work. Good call there.”

Merlin flushed and looked uncomfortable.

“Bought what?” Morgana asked, raising her eyebrow.

“The lube,” Arthur answered, shrugging. “And the condoms.”

Everyone in the room burst out laughing, though there were also some whistles and whooping sounds.

“Thanks a lot,” Merlin said. He was pouting now.

“I just wondered,” Arthur said. “We had spent pretty much every minute together for the whole week by then.”

“I take it you needed those things later?” Gwaine winked at Merlin.

“Could we get on with the story now?” Merlin asked hastily. “A lot more to come!”

“Oh, I’ll bet,” Morgana said with a smirk.

\---

Merlin had fallen asleep after a few hours on the train. His head had fallen on Arthur’s shoulder, and he was drooling slightly. It was never the most comfortable thing to sleep in a train, but leaning against Arthur had helped and when Merlin woke up he found Arthur staring out the window.

“Hi,” Merlin said, and wiped the drool off his chin. He ignored the fact that he had been using Arthur as a pillow for hours. “What’s the time?”

“Almost two in the morning,” Arthur answered, turning to look at Merlin. “Go back to sleep.”

Merlin shook his head.

“Aren’t you going to sleep at all?”

“Not tired,” Arthur murmured, but he yawned widely nonetheless. “It’s the longest night of the year, you know.”

“Really?” Merlin asked. He had read that somewhere, actually. It had just escaped his memory.

“Yeah. People used to celebrate the winter solstice, because after that the days would start getting longer again,” Arthur told Merlin before staring out the window once more. Merlin could see trees and small flickers of light flashing past. They looked at the scenery for a while, until Arthur’s stomach grumbled. Merlin grinned.

“Come on. Let’s eat something. Then we can both get a bit more sleep before we’re there,” Merlin said, and Arthur agreed. They munched at the sandwiches they had packed in case they grew hungry during the night and spoke in low voices so they wouldn’t disturb the other passengers. When they fell asleep again, Merlin was leaning against Arthur’s shoulder and Arthur’s cheek was resting against Merlin’s hair, but neither of them mentioned it.

It was funny to expect a morning that didn’t come.

The polar night wasn’t actually even that dark. There were several sources of light Merlin had never considered before; he had just assumed that it would be dark all day long, but the snow reflected a lot of light and the sky looked more blue than black. There was the bizarre atmosphere of knowing it was morning and that the twilight should give room to the full light of day, but it never happened.

“It’s beautiful,” Merlin whispered as they sat in the bus on the way to their hotel. “Thanks for bringing me here. Really.”

Arthur smiled gently at Merlin and just squeezed his hand.

\---

“I love you, Merlin, just so you know, but you are really slow and stupid sometimes,” Morgana pointed out.

“What? What did I do?” Merlin asked.

“You do realise that Arthur was doing all of that for you, right?” Gwen asked. Her voice was softer and more tentative than Morgana’s, but she sounded just as exasperated.

“I thought it was just a friendly sort of gesture. I thought Arthur knew I would’ve been pretty much fine with having a quiet night at the flat watching telly and eating crisps for Christmas. I don’t need silly romantic gestures,” Merlin said, and Arthur raised his eyebrows at him.

“And Arthur, really. Couldn’t you just have told the bloke that you liked him? You really had to take him to Lapland to do it?” Morgana continued.

Arthur shrugged.

“It worked in the end, didn’t it?”

\---

“I won’t be going back to Helsinki. I’ll just move here,” Merlin said when he laid back on the double bed. They were staying in the Queen Suite cabin for the first three nights, and the Glass Igloo for the last two. Arthur’s mouth twitched.

“Come on, Merlin. The day is young and there are a lot of activities going on. Let’s go and eat something first. After that we’ll wear something warm and go see what to do today. There’s a reindeer farm! And skiing! Snowmobile safari! Husky farm!” Arthur’s suggestion had begun with him clearly trying to stay cool about being here, but when Arthur stopped talking Merlin could sense his excitement.

“Okay,” Merlin said softly. “Let’s get some lunch then.”

\---

“Wait,” Gwaine interrupted. “So you basically did every cliché in the book to seduce him, Arthur?”

Merlin laughed.

“You have no idea. He invented a few new ones, too! It was like a winter wonderland and every romantic Christmas movie ever put together. With a metal music soundtrack. They had metal versions of Christmas carols back there!”

Arthur was blushing, though he tried to hide it by glaring at Merlin.

“That first day it was reindeers and huskies and snowshoe walking. He took me to the ridiculously posh snow restaurant where we got to try out snow carving before eating. It was amazing. If I had only known he was trying to seduce me.”

Everyone stared at Merlin.

“He took you to see huskies and snow carving and you didn’t realise he was trying to get in your pants?” Gwaine voiced the general opinion in the room. “What the fuck, Merlin?”

Merlin shrugged.

“Well, how the hell did you two even get your acts together?” Gwaine pushed the topic forward.

“Well,” Merlin thought about it. No way was he going to tell them that after the first night in Lapland they had basically woken up wrapped around each other and avoided each other’s eyes all morning. Their friends didn’t need to know everything.

“Northern Lights,” Arthur said.

Everyone turned to look at him.

“You still have one cliché missing. The Northern Lights,” Arthur elaborated.

“Oh, come on. You’re not saying... No, those things just don’t happen to anyone,” Gwaine insisted.

“Want to bet?” Arthur asked, smirking.

\---

[](http://tinypic.com?ref=1om9lj)

Their second day they had gone on the Snowmobile Safari. Arthur had been all excited about going on one and Merlin had agreed to share a snowmobile with him. The next day it would be Christmas Eve and they had agreed to spend that in peace and quiet. They were also going to try out the sauna and the hot tub that were included in the cabin that day. That meant Arthur wanted to fit a lot of activities into all the other days. When evening came, Merlin was tired and his muscles were sore, but he was also happy and excited. A guide at the main building of the hotel had told them that there was a possibility of seeing the Northern Lights that night, so they agreed to have a walk before going back to their cabin for the night. After showering, changing clothes and having dinner, Arthur and Merlin went to an open place close to their accommodation.

Merlin marvelled at everything he saw. Somehow even the dark forest didn’t scare him at all, but was just part of the attraction of the place. It seemed to have something mystical, something magical about it, and Merlin randomly thought about all the old stories and legends the Sami guide had told them earlier. There were more stars than Merlin had ever seen before in his life, and the Milky Way was clearly visible, a path going across the sky.

“Are you glad we came?” Arthur asked in a hushed voice. There was still no Aurora to be seen, but Merlin kept glancing at the northern sky from time to time.

“Yes. I’m more than happy,” Merlin said, grinning widely and looking at Arthur. Arthur was staring at him with a strange expression.

“Not missing being home for Christmas?”

Merlin just shook his head. He wanted to take Arthur’s hand in his. There was tension in the air and Merlin wondered where it had come from. They had been fine all day and night so far.

“Look,” Arthur whispered. While Merlin had been lost in his thoughts a slight green glow had began to form in the sky.

“Oh,” Merlin said when the Aurora appeared. It was a bit scary even though Merlin knew the scientific explanation behind the phenomenon. Arthur clicked a few pictures but soon put his camera away and just concentrated on watching the art display nature was giving them. After he began to pay attention to his surroundings again, Merlin noticed that Arthur had put his hand around his waist. The touch was light and they were wearing mittens and layers upon layers of clothing, but Merlin could imagine the warmth of Arthur’s hands on his skin.

Screw it. There was a time and a place for being careful that things didn’t become awkward, and then there were some signs that even Merlin couldn’t ignore. He thought, really thought for the first time, about the fact that Arthur had brought him to Lapland, to a ridiculously romantic environment, for Christmas, and there were Northern Lights in the sky. People in some cultures thought that seeing the Northern Lights brought luck, and maybe that gave Merlin enough courage to take Arthur’s hand in his. Arthur let out a sharp breath and looked at him. Merlin turned and looked back. The green of the Aurora was reflecting in Arthur’s eyes, and Merlin touched his cheek with one mitten-covered hand.

Slowly, questioningly, he pressed his lips to Arthur’s. When Arthur didn’t say anything he tried again, a bit harder, and then tried to step back when there was no answer to the kiss. After all, he wouldn’t want to force his attentions if Arthur wasn’t interested. Maybe this had all been a friendly gesture all along.

“Merlin,” Arthur said in a daze.

Arthur let go of Merlin’s hand and pulled him into a proper kiss, cradling his head with both hands. Then Arthur’s lips were on his and they were kissing. Arthur licked Merlin’s lips and pushed his tongue into Merlin’s mouth and Merlin answered the kiss with all he had. Between the kisses he could hear Arthur repeating his name, and fuck if it wasn’t the hottest thing Merlin had ever experienced even though it was freezing cold and they had so many clothes between them. The clothes made groping almost impossible.

“Oh wow. Look at that,” Arthur said, breaking their kiss.

Merlin turned to look, but didn’t leave Arthur’s arms. They saw how some red joined the green in the sky. They were almost like the drapes Merlin saw in pictures of the Northern Lights all the time. Arthur had wrapped his arms tight around Merlin—later he would almost certainly insist that it was only for warmth—and they were standing in the middle of a field surrounded by woods and watching the Northern Lights. Whatever Merlin had ever thought his life would be when he grew up, this was not it. This was something much better.

“Want to go back inside?” Arthur asked when the Lights began to fade after a while.

Merlin nodded and this time took Arthur’s hand.

\---

“Well, you can’t stop _there_ ,” Gwaine insisted. “What happened when you got back inside?”

Gwaine waggled his eyebrows suggestively. When Merlin didn’t answer, he turned towards Arthur.

“Come on. You were going to share everything before. Now’s the time for that.”

“Gwaine, you can probably guess as well as everyone what happened,” Merlin said, laughing.

“Details, Merlin, I want details!”

Merlin shook his head. The truth was that the whole story was almost too private to share on its own. There was no way he was going to share any additional details with Gwaine or anyone besides Arthur.

“Well, the clothes weren’t easy to remove, I can tell you that,” Arthur said, and Merlin heard laughter all around the room. “They make you not freeze your balls off outside, but when you’d rather be naked... Yeah. Not an easy task.”

Merlin snickered.

There was also the embarrassing fact that they had both come way too quickly that first time. What Arthur was saying about the clothes was true, and they had certainly not gotten all of them removed before attacking each other with lips and hands. It was good that they’d at least taken away their scarves and mittens and woolly hats. Everything else had gone along the way, but that first round they had both been wearing entirely too many layers. They had mostly just tried to reach as much skin as they could, and the memory was hazy now, but it involved a lot of half-removed clothes and kissing and hands shoved inside each other’s pants.

It was a good thing they were sharing a bed, because it hadn’t been the only time during that night.

Arthur had been wondering if it was out of some twisted sense of gratitude Merlin was doing this when they were finally in bed together. Merlin had silenced him by shoving his tongue in his mouth and sitting on his cock. It had proved to be an effective method.

Their holiday from that point onwards had still included cute animals and adventures and winter sports, and maybe one embarrassing incident with a Santa, but it had also included quite a lot of kissing and having sex in various parts of the cabin. Possibly some indecent touching in the sauna, too. No sex, ew ew, no. It was hot as hell in a Finnish sauna and it made skin glow all red and dead skin cells peel away. One really didn’t want to have sex in there, because it was probably the least erotic place ever. The hot pool on the other hand... Well, Merlin was not going to share those details either.

Whenever Merlin thought that they really couldn’t have been more cliché if they’d tried, he remembered the glass igloo and the stars and Northern Lights glowing above them as they lay naked in the bed together. There was the usual stage of cliché and then there was the embarrassing teenage girl daydream stage. It had been all Arthur’s fault that they had slipped to that level, and there was no way Merlin was going to take any of the blame for it.

He was just happy that all of that had happened while they had been thousands of miles from home, and there hadn’t been any people who knew them around. Except back in Helsinki, where they had gotten their fair share of wolf-whistles and winks and nudges and _I knew it_ ’s.

Arthur elbowed him in the ribs then.

“Ow. What?” Merlin asked.

“I think we’d better send the guests home,” Arthur answered. Merlin was waiting to hear protests in the room, but only Gwaine was voicing them. Gwen and Lance were changing phone numbers, and Morgana was trying to hide a yawn. Everyone else looked like they were ready to go home already or, in Gwaine’s case, see if they could find someone to accompany them in bar.

“Yeah, I think so,” Merlin said and then whispered only for Arthur’s ears, “Am I one of the guests?”

Arthur seemed to ponder the question.

“Nah, I think you can stay. If you promise to behave.”

Merlin flashed Arthur a filthy grin and went to see their guests out.

Cliché or not, maybe it was not happily ever after, but it was close enough.

-fin-

[](http://tinypic.com?ref=mbqv07)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Fanfic Cover: "Northern Exposure"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/616362) by [La_Temperanza](https://archiveofourown.org/users/La_Temperanza/pseuds/La_Temperanza)




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